Abstract

This Independent Study is divided into 4 chapters. The first chapter covers three accounts of epistemology—W.V. Quine, Linda Zagzebski, and Lynn Nelson—in order to read both Nelson and Zagzebski as answering and responding to different parts of Quine. The chapter focuses on Quine’s work in “Epistemology Naturalized,” On Zagzebski’s, it focuses on her idea of the conscientious knower, theory of virtue epistemology, Zagzebski’s work on Gettier problems, and her theory of the “value problem” in On Epistemology. The chapter then looks at Nelson’s work on collective epistemology in Who Knows and “Epistemological Communities.” The second chapter moves to question parts of both Nelson and Zagzebski. Discussing Nelson, it first looks at the non-normativity in Nelson’s theory before questioning whether Nelson’s move to the community is sufficient to solve the problems of individualism. Zagzebski’s theory, while having a rich normativity, also fails at making a move to the community. The second chapter ends with an analysis of individualism as well as an argument for a move from discussing knowing towards discussing understanding. The third chapter attempts to propose resonant understanding as a theory that can resolve the issues found with both Nelson and Zagzebski in chapter 2, resulting in a richly normative theory that escapes individualism through a focus on relationships. The argument for this theory is based in an example of disabled knowing that is described by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. The fourth chapter gives 3 examples of cases where ignoring resonant understanding leads to epistemological errors. The cases are a music festival that attempts to be woman only but excludes trans women, mistakes that come from attempting to use standardized testing to evaluate students, and finally flawed definitions of rape used in legal cases.

Advisor

Thomson, Garrett

Department

Philosophy

Keywords

Epistemology, Feminism

Publication Date

2026

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2026 Olivia J. Hankins